To celebrate the launch of a podcast that is going to become a part of my essential listening routine, I took the time this morning to rejig my Instacast settings to better reflect what I plan to plug into every week. I haven’t really done this since August 2011, so I figured the landscape (and my time and taste) has changed over the past several months.
Incidentally, this new podcast is called Home Work, a podcast that will most certainly resonate with me since I work from home – and that’s what this podcast is all about. Hosts Aaron Mahnke and Dave Caolo talk about the trials and tribulations of working from home, something I can complete relate to. The first episode hit the Internet today – Home Work is part of the fine programming over at 70Decibels network – and if you’re a freelancer or telecommuter then give it a listen. You won’t be disappointed.
The Master Feeds
Rather than grab individual podcasts from my favourite podcast networks, I’m simply subscribing to the master audio feeds each provides. That means over every podcast each network produces, and can pick and choose the ones I want to listen to that way. There are some on the networks that I don’t listen to regularly – or at all – and I skip those. But since there are so many that I do listen to and I don’t want to clutter up my Instacast queue, this is the beltway to make that happen.
And what are those networks? Dan Benjamin’s 5by5 network and Myke Hurley’s 70Decibels network. 1
Beyond The Master Feeds
Although I clearly have the master feeds to both of these networks, there are a couple of shows that live outside the master in my Instacast queue as well. I described these in my last post regarding my podcasting diet, so you can check my thoughts on them there or click on the links below to add them to your diet straight away.
- Enough – The Podcast
- Mac Power Users
Now let’s get to the podcasts that don’t belong to a network (or are the only things I listen to on a network).
The Returning Ones
I haven’t cut these from my podcasting diet, which is an impressive feat considering they’ve kept my attention regularly for a year or more. I described these shows in my last post on the subject, so you can check out my thoughts on them there or simply click on the links provided to check them out for yourself.
The New Ones
These podcasts have been added to my diet since my last post on the topic. Most of them run under 30 minutes, so even though it appears I’ve added more time to my podcasting diet, I’ve added more titles. I’m actually listening to less per week than I was before – and I’m actually listening now more intently than before because these podcasts are generally shorter and don’t “lose” me during episodes.
- Affirmation Nation with Bob Ducca: A short, funny podcast that speaks to my Eventualism roots. I may very well model any future podcast associated with Eventualism with this one in mind.
- Dyscultured: Sure, I’m on this podcast…but not for much longer. So I’m adding it to my diet now because I’ll want to keep up with Canada’s premier independent pop culture and technology podcast.
- The Accidental Creative: Todd Henry has put together this podcast adjunct to his Accidental Creative website, and it’s an inspiring listen. It’s also relatively short, which is important when it comes to my ability to digest all of the podcasts I’ve got on my menu.
- Great Work Interviews: Another podcast that usually clocks in at under 30 minutes, Michael Bungay Stanier of Box of Crayons interviews some great people who do great work. There’s a friendly tone to this podcast, which makes it really easy to listen to.
- Roderick on the Line: More Merlin Mann. This time, however, with John Roderick (whom I met at MaxFunCon last year). A longer podcast, but filled with laughs and clever, witty exchanges. This essentially replaced You Look Nice Today while it was on a really extended hiatus, and it grew on me to the point where I can’t let it go.
- The CultCast: The official podcast of Cult of Mac, The CultCast gives me a weekly dose of Apple news in far less time than most other podcasts out there. The CultCast crew keep it light without losing any of the informative value that people seek when listening to a technology podcast. It’s new to the scene and well worth exploring if you’re an Apple enthusiast.
- HBR IdeaCast: This is the latest addition to my podcasting diet, mainly because i’m a huge fan of the work at Harvard Business Review. It is essentialy a weekly podcast that brings me (as HBR describes it) “the analysis and advice of the leading minds in management” – and in a pretty compact form as well.
Some Final Thoughts
When you compare this post to my previous post about my essential podcast diet, it looks as if I’ve reduced the ones I listen to regularly by a few. But I also added the master audio feeds this time around, so I’m actually listening to more podcasts.
But the amount of time I spend listening to podcasts has decreased because I’ve cut out some of the longer ones and I tend to filter out some of the podcasts in the network master audio feeds as I go.
With this new podcast diet, I have a full plate of prime podcast material. One that satisfies my appetite for information, ideas and entertainment.
And that’s music to my ears.
Photo credit: Jake Bellucci (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
1 I’d add Maximum Fun to this list, but I have yet to find a master audio feed for the network. That said, I haven’t looked very hard either.
